Virus

On Halloween, Focus on the Family Institute President Del Tackett warned parents in an email entitled "A Night of Spiritual Naturalism" about the increase of mystic practices.

"The night of fun [Halloween] has become a mainstream part of our culture. The messages of popular songs, movies and television are increasingly "dark." New Age and Eastern mysticism thought are pervasive, found even in our kindergartens. The spiritual animation of the material world is a growing phenomenon. Wicca attracts more and more young women into its covens.... [W]e are seeing a rapid rise in what I call "spiritual naturalism." This is not a movement toward the transcendent God of the universe, but simply adding "spirit" to the matter and energy of the natural realm. I would argue that it is not a movement toward the "supernatural," but more toward the "sub-natural" for it draws people ever deeper into the darkness of the spiritual forces of hell, not heaven.... Parents, beware. The messages we allow our children to hear often carry a virus."

[TBC: While one must applaud Focus on the Family for warning parents about the occult, one also can shake one's head at how Dobson's ministry promotes practices that simultaneously contain the same deadly virus. Focus on the Family sponsors an online magazine called "Boundless.” In an article written in 2000, author Sarah E. Hinlicky addressed "prayer."]

"There is no end to the kinds and styles of prayer disciplines. Roman Catholics pray the rosary, of course, and the Orthodox say the Jesus prayer, and the Lord’s Prayer is the final measuring stick for any kind of prayer at all. There are two particular kinds of prayer that I've run across lately that fit this model of disciplined desire very nicely: lectio divina and contemplative prayer."

(http://www.boundless.org/2000/departments/head_and_heart/a0000414.html).

[TBC: "Programs and practices rife with occult methodologies and techniques have been in the works at churches and youth ministries around the country: Taizé, Lectio Divina, The Labyrinth (prayer walk), Renovaré, guided imagery, Walk to Emmaus, Cursillo, Centering Prayer, Ignatian Awareness Examen, The Jesus Prayer, and The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, to name but a handful."